Tag Archives: Tax Exempt

On Wednesday, the House Ways and Means Committee voted to refer former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution. By a vote of 23 to 14, a closed-door session of the House committee determined that Lerner’s role in the alleged singling out of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status for undue scrutiny was a criminal act.

The vote was “just another attempt by Republicans to vilify Ms. Lerner for political gain,” according to the ex-IRS official’s attorney, William Taylor...

Appearing in front of the House Oversight Committee Wednesday morning Lois Lerner, former head of tax exempt groups at the IRS, refused to answer questions asked by lawmakers by pleading the Fifth Amendment. Earlier this week, Lerner's attorney William Taylor confirmed to Committee members in an email that she would testify. Lerner was issued a subpoena last summer after admitting the IRS singled out conservative groups for extra scrutiny.

"On the advice of my counsel I respectfully exercise my fifth amendment right and decline to answer that question," Lerner said...

After over a year of back and forth, including a half hearted attempt to claim 5th Amendment rights regarding self incrimination, Lois Lerner will finally be testifying before Congress this week about the intention targeting of conservative groups by the IRS.

Lerner resigned last year after she took the stand, plead that she was innocent of any wrongdoing, then invoked the 5th Amendment in order to not have to say anything else, which is something many people were upset with because they believe she waived that right when she made her statement...

Though President Obama insists the Internal Revenue Service is not guilty of political targeting of nonprofits, WND has learned the agency contracts with an avowedly “progressive” organization supported by George Soros to process data filed by smaller tax-exempt groups.

The federal agency process sends details contained in the annual filings for organizations with $50,000 in annual receipts or less to the Urban Institute, which is funded at least partly by government payments as well as contributions from far-left activist George Soros...

New evidence undercuts White House claims about IRS motivation...

Republicans clashed with the Internal Revenue Service's new commissioner Wednesday in a Capitol Hill hearing that featured the unveiling a document indicating that the agency planned as early as 2012 to change its rules in a way that justified singling out tea party groups for special scrutiny.

The document, an email from Treasury Department tax policy attorney Ruth Madrigal to a group of IRS officials including the disgraced Lois Lerner.

'Don’t know who in your organizations is keeping tabs on c4s,' Madrigal wrote, quoting an election law blog and referring to the 501(c)(4) tax-exempt groups that were the subject of the tea party targeting scandal, 'but since we mentioned potentially addressing them (off plan) in 2013, I’ve got my radar up and this seemed interesting.'...

President Obama keeps claiming that he had no knowledge of the Internal Revenue Service's abusive muzzling of conservative groups. That line is hard to swallow given that his Treasury and IRS are back at it—this time in broad daylight.

In the media blackout of Thanksgiving week, the Treasury Department dumped a new proposal to govern the political activity of 501(c)(4) groups. The administration claims this rule is needed to clarify confusing tax laws. Hardly. The rule is the IRS's new targeting program—only this time systematic, more effective, and with the force of law...